Pakistan finished the first day of the Multan Test match on 328-4 after captain Shan Masood won the toss and opted to bat. Gus Atkinson (2-70) got Saim Ayub (4) early, before Abdullah Shafique (102) and Masood (151) added 253 for the second wicket. Sixteen balls after Atkinson got Shafique, Jack Leach (1-61) caught Masood off his own bowling.

This brought Babar Azam and Saud Shakeel (35 not out) together. Babar has been without a Test fifty since since his 161 in the Boxing Day Test match of 2022, against New Zealand at Karachi. Here, on a flat surface, he seemed set to end that streak against a tired England attack, kept in the sun all day.

However, in the penultimate over of the day, Babar tried to flick a ball from Woakes (1-58) and was hit on the pad. He reviewed after Kumar Dharmasena ruled him out leg-before, but to no avail: the ball would have crashed into the leg-stump.

Babar walked back for 30. He has now been without a Test fifty in 17 innings and 651 days. Over this period, his scores in Test cricket read:

14 (Karachi); 24 and 27 (Karachi) against New Zealand, 2022/23
13 and 24 (Galle); 39 (SSC) against Sri Lanka, 2023
21 and 14 ((Perth); 1 and 41 (Melbourne); 26 and 23 (Sydney) against Australia, 2023/24
0 and 22 (Rawalpindi); 31 and 11 (Rawalpindi) against Bangladesh, 2024
30 (Multan) against England, 2024/25

Before the streak, Babar’s average stood at 49.74, the fifth-best for Pakistan with a 3,000-run cut-off. That has now dropped to 44.35, their eighth-best.

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